“You should skip class today,” I muttered into Ezra’s shoulder as I wrapped my arms around his stomach. I could feel him chuckle lightly and his arms gently moving over mine as he tied the tie around his neck in a perfect Windsor knot. “You should skip class and stay with me all day.”
“Would that I could, babe,” he said, finishing up the knot and turning away from my hug to grab his suit jacket. “But I have a meeting with my advisor later and it’d be pretty bad to show up for the meeting I scheduled but not his class.” He swung the jacket onto his shoulder and kissed me lightly. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, okay?”
Instead of answering, I pulled on his perfect tie until he kissed me again. Lips remaining connected, we walked back over to the bed, eventually falling over onto the rumpled covers that we never seemed to make. After a minute, he pulled away from me. “Mina…” he said warningly. “I really have to go.”
I frowned at him and let go of his tie. “Fine. Go have fun at your classes and your meetings.”
“Believe me, I won’t be having half as much fun at those things as I would with you.” He picked up his bag and slung it over one shoulder, kissing me quickly on the forehead before walking out the front door.
I yawned and sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes before putting on a pair of slippers and headed down to the kitchen two stories below. Nova was chopping up some fruit slowly, taking care not to cut herself on the sharp paring knife. Simon had a bowl of some special health cereal and was sitting at the breakfast bar watching television while he ate it. He glanced up at me as I came down the stairs, raising an eyebrow as he added, “Good morning, Boo. How was your night? Get much sleep?” Nova giggled and reached across the island she was working at so they could fist bump.
“Nope, but I got some really great sex, thanks for asking.” Nova giggled again and picked up a strawberry to begin cutting. I poured myself a cup of coffee and watched them go about their day happily.
I hated what I was about to do, but I had to tell them. I mean, I had to talk to someone. I wasn’t a… well, yes, I was technically a robot, but that didn’t mean that I had no feelings! So as casually as I could, I took a sip of coffee, swallowed, and said, “I kissed Tempus Manum,” before closing my eyes.
When I opened them again, I wasn’t surprised by the sight I saw before me. Nova was sucking on her finger, a drop of blood on the counter from where she’d cut herself—although for all I knew, that could just as well be strawberry juice. Simon’s spoon had slipped from his hand, spraying his face with milk and flakes of grain. He blinked numbly as a drop of milk fell past his eye onto his cheekbone.
After a minute, he picked up a napkin and dabbed the milk away from his face. Nova looked at her finger curiously and then swiped up the drop from the counter. It must have been strawberry juice after all. “Mina, Boo, I’m sure I misheard you just now. Please tell me I misheard you just now, because I think I heard you say that you kissed Tempus Manum behind Ezra’s back.”
“Well…I did, but before you say anything, it was right after he beat the Ninja last week and it lasted like two seconds and I don’t know, I guess I was all hyped up on adrenaline and seeing the future and oh my god.” I groaned and took a sip of coffee again, remembering what had happened. We’d kissed for a second and then pulled apart awkwardly. At that moment, the ground below us disappeared and I found myself hurtling to the grass in Everground Square, our time. After giving an edited version of my story to The Prophet, who was in charge of media coverage, I’d flown home without looking back. “Guys, I’m such a horrible person.”
“Yeah, that’s saying something,” scoffed Nova. “What the hell, Mina? Ezra’s your boyfriend. He’s crazy about you; why would you go and screw that up with him?”
“Thanks, Nova,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I know that I fucked up. But seriously, what should I do?”
“What should you do?” asked Nova, her mouth curving into an ‘O’ of shock. “You know what you should do. You should never tell Ezra and just…not do anything else with Tempus Manum again.” She scrunched up her face, like the thought disgusted her, and shuddered. “Ever.”
“See, and I disagree,” said Simon, chewing thoughtfully on a bite of his cereal. Now Nova and I both looked at him in shock. He shrugged, swallowed his cereal, and finished wiping up the rest of his cereal from the table. “What? I might not like superheroes, but even I can attest to the incredible godliness of Tempus Manum.” He feigned swooning and sighed. “Woo, the things I’d let that man do to me.”
“So…what are you saying exactly?” I asked him, frowning in confusion. Sometimes with Simon, you couldn’t tell whether he was giving advice or going on a tangent. “Is this an ‘I think you should dump Ezra’ speech or an ‘I’m so hot and so is that celebrity, we should have babies’ speech?”
“It’s not an anything type of speech,” he replied casually. “I’m not saying you should dump Ezra right this second, but I certainly wouldn’t write Tempus Manum off so easily.” He put the spoon down and leaned forward, grinning like he knew something we didn’t.
Nova scoffed angrily at him. “I’m sorry, please explain to me in what universe there would be a logical reason for Mina to consider the possibility of leaving a stable and happy relationship with Ezra for one with Tempus Manum, a person she didn’t even like the theory of until a few weeks ago.”
“This universe, okay?” he said, rolling his eyes at Nova. He turned back to face me. “Listen, Boo. You’re cute. If I was straight, you’d be on my short list. And you know how short that short list is, so you know for a fact how incredibly reliable my word is here. And I’m not just saying this because you’re my best friend…"
“One of your best friends,” said Nova, making an extra large chop with her knife.
Simon smiled tensely and nodded. “Yes, Babe. One of my best friends. I’m not just saying this because you’re my best friend, but because you’re my best friend, I think that you deserve to get whatever you want out of life. It’s why I’m trying to deal with this…you know…Stryker phase that you’re going through. I’m only looking out for you and I only have your best interests in mind when I say all of this.” He sighed. “So here’s the truth. Tempus Manum…he’s famous. He regularly manages to save damsels in distress from evil villains. For the love of God, the man is a time traveler. And he kissed you.”
I bit my lip nervously before taking a sip of my coffee. “Well, I’m not sure who actually kissed who…”
Simon stopped me with a gentle hand on my arm. “Honey…Boo…listen, don’t flatter yourself. Even if you consciously knew that you liked Tempus Manum, we both know that you wouldn’t have made that first move in any scenario. It just isn’t you. So we have to assume that he’s the instigator of that kiss, and that means that he likes you. A superhero, a legitimate knight in shining armor, likes you. I’m sorry, but I’m not going to let you just throw an opportunity like that away just because you have a boyfriend right now.”
“Yes she can throw that away, Simon, and she will if she knows what’s good for her,” said Nova sternly. “She loves Ezra. She would never betray his trust like that. I hate to say it, but…” She looked at me sadly. “If she were to do anything with Tempus Manum right now, she’d be no better than her mother.” My breath hitched in my throat and I couldn’t move from the intense gaze of Nova’s eyes. “Isn’t that right, Mina?”
“That’s right,” I said softly, my voice breaking quietly. I cleared my throat and shook my head. “That’s absolutely right. I can’t waste time fooling around with Tempus Manum, I…” I slammed my coffee cup down on the counter and started for the door. “I have a future with Ezra and I need to devote myself to that future.”
“Boo, where are you going?” asked Simon, leaning around a pillar to frown at me as I grabbed my house keys and Nova’s car keys off of a hook.
“I have to go break things off with Tempus Manum.”
I drove over to the POWER group building on automatic, barely taking the time to valet the car before walking numbly up to the reception desk. “Hey, is Tempus Manum in?” I asked, glancing down at my phone. It chirped that I had two new messages: one from Simon that read ‘Don’t do it!’ and another from Nova that said ‘You’re doing the right thing’.
I sure hoped I was.
“Yes, he just got in. Do you want me to tell him you’re coming up, Mina?”
“No thanks, Lu…” I glanced up to see that the receptionist sitting at the desk was not Luca at all. Instead, Energia was sitting there, out of costume and in business clothes, rolling her eyes and tapping her blue fingernails away on the keyboard. “Uh, Gia, I mean. No, he already knows I’m coming up.” She raised an eyebrow skeptically. There was no way she was buying my story. “So what’s up with you working down here now?”
Energia rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Luca’s sick and when she gets sick, she gets kind of paranoid that the POWER group will come crashing down with no one to stop people from wandering the building and finding out secrets. So…it was either cover for her until she’s better or clean up vomit all day.” She shuddered. “And I don’t know if I made the right choice because some of these people are awful.”
“Excuse me, when is Energia going to be available?” asked a woman on the other side of the desk. Energia rolled her eyes again and twirled around to face her with an uncharacteristically sweet smile.
“I’m so sorry, ma’am, but unfortunately, all of Energia’s appointments have been pushed until a later date. You should have received an email this morning and I’m terribly sorry if it didn’t get to you. What would be a good day to reschedule?”
“Oh, no, I had an appointment for today and I heard from a friend that if I came in anyway, even though they said I should reschedule, I’d be able to see her. I’m Rebecca Stevens?”
Energia laughed like she couldn’t believe that this woman was actually trying this. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but Energia is unavailable for the rest of the day and most likely tomorrow as well. I can take a message if you’d like and make sure it gets to her.”
“No, I can wait until my appointment time.” The woman went back over to her spot on one of the couches in the waiting area.
“Oh, Jesus Christ,” said Energia exhaustedly, her head collapsing into her hands and her arms collapsing onto the desk with the added weight. From her vantage point of seeing only the floor, she added in a muffled voice, “You can take the elevator up. Third one in the hall. I queued it for you.”
I grinned, thanked her and walked over to the elevator, stepping inside the doors instantly and pressing the button for Tempus Manum’s floor. The ride up seemed to take forever—well, longer than it had the last time, at any rate—and I tapped my foot nervously against the hard metal floor covered by thin carpeting. The numbers ticked away slowly.
Finally, the doors opened into the same small hallway leading to the same lone door. I raised one hand to the door and, before I could convince myself that I should just walk away, I knocked.
“Um…just a minute,” I heard him call out from beyond the door. He sounded confused, to say the least.
Oh jeez. This was a bad idea. I should go. I turned to leave, but before I could get very far, the door opened to reveal Tempus Manum standing there without a mask. He was frowning slightly in confusion, his thick eyebrows framing green eyes that weren’t as intense as I was used to. His lanky black hair was covered by a dark beanie, but still framed his face nicely…just differently than it did with the mask. His face was thinner and he had high cheekbones jutting out around his aquiline nose. There was a tiny wrinkle on his forehead between his eyes that was obviously permanent and the Tempus Manum I knew didn’t have any wrinkles.
Was this the Tempus Manum I knew?
“Mina. What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Hey, Temp. Can I…” I gestured to the apartment behind him. He made a soft ‘oh’ noise, before stepping to the side and letting me enter, closing the door behind me. I fiddled with the collar of my jacket before taking it off and placing it down on a table near the entrance.
“So what’s up?” he said slowly, running a hand through his hair and walking into his den. I followed him after a second, trying to figure out the rights words to say.
“We have to talk,” I said, sitting down quickly on the first couch I saw. Tempus Manum nodded and sat down in an armchair next to the couch.
“Okay.” He crossed one leg over the other, so that his ankle rested on his knee. “Talk about what?”
“You know what,” I said, looking down at my hands.
“Yeah,” he said, laughing slightly as he picked a piece of fuzz off his gray t-shirt. “I’m not quite sure I do. You’re not being very clear what you want me to talk about and if I don’t know…” He shrugged helplessly.
Jesus Christ, this was like dealing with a petulant child. “Fine,” I said sharply before taking a deep breath. “If you won’t talk, then I will. Temp, I have a boyfriend. And frankly, I have no clue what you may or may not have, but…”
“Mina, you know for a fact that the playboy thing is an act. You were there with Randi. You know what she does. Any rumors are just people trying to piggyback onto my fame.” He frowned. “You can’t honestly believe that I’d do something like sleep with the mayor’s wife or date a girl just to break her heart for fun.”
“Okay, but see, you know how you’re not really that guy, Temp? I’m not really that girl,” I continued, twisting my watch around my wrist anxiously. “I love Ezra and you know that and I never want to do anything that might hurt him, so this… this thing that we have between us… whatever it is, it can’t continue. It’s wrong.”
“Okay.” He took a deep breath and pushed himself up out of the chair, going to turn on the television and search for a channel. This was…very cavalier of him. When I didn’t say anything else, he turned around and raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, is that it?”
“I…” I recoiled slightly, surprised. This was going a lot differently than I’d imagined. “Yes.”
After finding a channel he was satisfied with, he threw the remote down on the armchair and chuckled to himself, shaking his head slightly. The beanie slipped a little, revealing a scar on his hairline but he adjusted it quickly before facing me and continuing. “Really? You came all this way to tell me that you had a boyfriend? That this was wrong? Things I already knew?”
“It was mostly just a reminder, but…”
“Mina, I travel to the future on almost a daily basis. I was in the room with you when you told Randi that you had a boyfriend and you loved him. Because of all that, I know a lot of things. I know all about you and Ezra and whatever possible future you might have had together. I know what possible future you two might have now that we’ve kissed. And I know exactly what you’re trying to do right now. You’re trying to say no.”
“No,” I said, glaring at him firmly. “I’m not trying, I am. I’m saying I don’t want to.”
“No. You’re trying. Trying to do something and actually doing it are two completely different things. See, if you were actually doing it, you’d have said what you wanted to say and you’d have left immediately. But you didn’t.” He sat down on the sofa next to me and leaned towards me. I shifted towards the arm of the chair to counter him. “Look, I get it. You’re eighteen, you really like this guy…”
“I love him,” I said, frowning.
Tempus Manum sighed and put one hand on my leg, draping the other arm around my shoulders. “Like I said. You’re eighteen. You really like this guy. So you think you love him, but have you ever really experienced love? Do you really know what that feels like? Does he? What I’m offering you here isn’t just something physical. I felt a connection between us that I haven’t felt with someone in a long time. Maybe it wasn’t obvious when we first met, but there’s just something about you that fascinates me.” He let go of my knee to brush a strand of hair behind my ear and I froze. His hand trailed down, lingering on the line of my jaw for a second before dropping to my thigh. “I know you can feel it, too. That electricity between us, the sparks, the connection.”
“I don’t feel anything,” I said, dropping my gaze down to the floor before raising it again to look him in the eye. He chuckled and leaned forward even more, so that there was nowhere to look but right at him.
“Is that you or the robot talking?” His question caught me off guard and I frowned. “Oh, yeah, I know what you think about yourself. Even if I hadn’t spoken to future you, it’s so easy to read on your face. You think that because you’re a cyborg, you can’t feel these strong emotions the way you used to feel them or the way you’re supposed to. You think it’s perfectly normal for your feelings towards everything important in your life to be coated with this thick apathy. I know that you don’t feel love for your boyfriend; you feel that you like him and you feel attracted to him and you feel secure when you’re with him. But you two have no passion between you. Still, you assume that is as close to love as you’re ever going to get, now that you’re not totally human anymore.” He leaned in even closer, so that our noses were nearly touching.
His green eyes bore holes into me with an intense, threatening gaze. Even though they weren’t as bright or as pretty an emerald as the mask made them, I could see flecks of gold and blue flicker as his irises caught the light. The heat of his breath was warm on my face as his unspoken challenge hung wordlessly in the air.
I shook my head and moved to turn away from him, but he put his hand on the side of my face and turned it back toward him, closing the gap between us simultaneously. At the touch of his warm lips to mine, I felt a current go zapping through to my stomach and I was trapped between the arm of the couch and his rock-hard muscles. I gasped in response, my eyes widening for a minute, but slowly closing soon after. My arms wrapped around the back of his neck, pulling him in closer.
The hand that had wrapped around my shoulder tangled with my ponytail and pulled tightly, making me gasp again…a much sharper gasp that was honestly probably closer to a moan at this point. I could feel the edges of Tempus Manum’s lips lift in a smile and felt his chuckle verberate in mouth. My breathing got shallower and my heart beat faster and if it weren’t for the fact that I was a robot, I might have died. The hand on my cheek drifted down my neck, skimming along my chest, past my waist and down to my knee before hitching my leg up so it wrapped around his waist. It crept back up to rest on the strip of skin between my jeans and my shirt.
The intensity of the kiss slowed and so did my heart until finally, he pulled away and rested his forehead gently against mine. I opened my eyes slowly to see him smiling softly at me. “Now tell me that you felt nothing just now. Tell me that you didn’t feel just as much in that kiss as you feel with any kiss you’ve had with your boyfriend. Tell me that you are absolutely certain that Ezra is the man you will love for the rest of your life.”
I shoved Tempus Manum off of me as fast as I could and got off the couch. While he hit the floor with a force large enough to rattle it, my hands were fluttering around my body as I straightened out my shirt, my hair, my necklace, anything that might be out of place. “I have to go tell him,” I said, blinking as I realized exactly what had just happened. “I can’t do this to him.” I rushed out of the apartment as quickly as I could. Hearing Tempus Manum behind me, I didn’t bother waiting for the elevator and instead took the staircase next to it. I burst out of the door into the lobby minutes later, barely winded as my instincts had taken control a little more than I cared to admit. Energia looked up at in shock as I bolted past reception, then doubled back and leaned over the counter.
“Can I leave a message for him when he gets down here?” I asked hurriedly, glancing nervously at the elevators and the stairs. I didn’t think he’d follow me, but then again, I barely knew him. Energia nodded and took out a pack of Post-Its and a pen.
“Shoot.”
“Tell I’ll be back. No, wait, tell him…thank you? No, no, I got it.” I watched her scribbled down the messages and cross them both out. “Just tell him I'll call him, okay?” She nodded and scratched the message down on a new Post-It. As soon as she looked away, I was gone.